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Day 74 - "Shady Deals"

Spanish Practices - Real Life, Real Spain

Release Date: 05/29/2020

Day 98 - Day 98 - "The End?"

Spanish Practices - Real Life, Real Spain

Transcript: Day 98 The End? Sunday and the Alarma is over, Lockdown is unlocked, 99 days, it started on Saturday March 14th, but actually I consider that weekend to be the two phoney days of Lockdown.   Saturday 14th March was a pretty normal day, the supermarket rammed with people taking everything off the shelves, including the toilet paper, something that the Spanish do not a use a lot of, most prefer to wash in the bidet than smear on the pan, as it were.   Sunday was equally as busy as people rushed around to be in the right place before the strict measures and fines started on...

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Day 97 - Day 97 - "Of mousy women and men"

Spanish Practices - Real Life, Real Spain

Full transcript: Day 97 Of mousy women and men Saturday the weather is calm, the sun is shining, I have been doing some extreme weeding on the mountainside and managed to not fall down, the one time I did I thought it was best to relax and just let my body slide to a bit where I could cling on.  Our garden in Essex did not have the same extreme challenges, unless you count the incredible numbers of snails that ate their way through most of our English garden.   I have been spending some time reflecting, yesterday about the reasons why we came to Spain, today a reflection of things...

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Day 96 - Day 96 - "Tim Tams"

Spanish Practices - Real Life, Real Spain

Full transcript: Day 96 Tim Tams   Friday and the I made a terrible mistake today, I try very hard now to avoid the TV news from the UK, we have enough to occupy ourselves here with events in Spain.   I caught a picture of Headmaster Boris holding a packet of Tim Tams up, from what I understand following a new trade deal with Australia you will get tuppence off this less than delicious biscuit from Australia and the trade deal will end up adding only a gnats thingy to the UK GDP.   Worse I then wandered into the news that the New Zealand trade deal could well have a negative...

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Day 95 - Day 95 - "Bonfire Night"

Spanish Practices - Real Life, Real Spain

Transcript: Day 95 Bonfire night   Thursday and now just a few days before everything un locks, the end of the Alarma and the new normal will start on Monday, many Spanish can go back to work and get the working week off to.. er, well er, a two day start, because next Wednesday “we are having a Fiesta”   The Fiesta of San Juan to be precise, the beginning of summer and those long summer holidays, after all we have all been working so hard these last few weeks … erm!   San Juan is when hordes of Spanish all head to the beach for a party, it will last all night and bonfires...

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Day 94 - Day 94 - "Assassination"

Spanish Practices - Real Life, Real Spain

Transcript: Day 94 Assassination  Wednesday and the excitement cannot be contained, I am going shopping with Chris, well to be honest he doesn’t want me in the first shop, - Mercadona, he tells me he has a routine now and that doesn’t include me putting unsuitable items in the shopping trolley.   Never mind I am going to the Post Office instead, to pick up a parcel, the Post Office is only open between 8.30am and 2.30pm, the local office is tiny and usually packed, as many Spanish still come and pay their bills and do very complicated administrative things.   I arrived to...

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Day 93 - Day 93 - "Anyone for Tennis"

Spanish Practices - Real Life, Real Spain

Transcript uncorrected: Day 93 Anyone for tennis?   Tuesday and we are battening down the hatches, the wind is returning again with a vengeance, so far, the summer here has not really happened. Today it is overcast and sticky humid.   Our Gym has opened, and we went last night, OK so it is not the normal evening busy, but there were people and Chris’ class was about half the normal number.  What was encouraging was the queue to join the Gym, at one point ten people deep, well social distanced.   There were a lot of arrows and nowhere to sit, most of the members were...

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Day 92 Day 92 "Dance Off"

Spanish Practices - Real Life, Real Spain

Transcript (uncorrected) Day 92 Dance off   Monday has come, I usually dread Monday as it always brings administration stuff which I really don’t care for.   By the way if you want to catch all 92 episodes with transcripts of Spanish Practices head over to THE secret spain dot com.   Today the administration was our Spanish Tax return, I say our, as we are married it has been done jointly, I get the classification of Woman, the form does not seem to have a code for Partner.    The Spanish Tax year runs from January to December, unlike the UK tax year that runs April...

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Day 91 Day 91 "Playboy Kings"

Spanish Practices - Real Life, Real Spain

Transcript (uncorrected) Day 91   Sunday and Uncle Pedro has been doing his weekly Zoom meeting, he likes to surprise the regional Governments, just to remind them all he is the one in charge.   So he has brought forward the date when Spain will open its borders to everyone except Portugal, so on Monday 22nd June the Lockdown will be over, for now and so will this Podcast, I still have the story to tell about one of the stupidest things I did some years ago. I will keep that for later in the week.   But you can’t have a Podcast about Spain without mentioning the Spanish Royal...

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Day 90 - Day 90 - "Holidays from Hell"

Spanish Practices - Real Life, Real Spain

Transcript here: Day 90 holiday from hell Saturday your Sunday and the Spanish Government has started to talk about how they envisage foreign visitors coming to the country, the first lot will turn up on Monday, they are Germans coming to the Balearic Islands.   Interestingly about 35,000 people travelled to Spain in May, whilst not holidaymakers, they were mainly people returning back to Spain for work or back to their residency.   From all those who travelled, 104 people were detected to have Corona Virus.   But in a couple of weeks the onslaught will begin, instead of...

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Day 89 - Day 89 - "Fag End"

Spanish Practices - Real Life, Real Spain

Full Transcript: Day 89 Fag End Friday and we are off to the Administrator to sell our old car to Carmen, what could possibly go wrong, find out later in this episode.   If you want to catch up on previous episodes and full transcripts, go to the   Today I have been thinking about Satan’s smoke. A great many people in Spain seem to smoke, I remember we had to pick up a parcel from a UPS pick up point that turned out to be a rather sad looking Travel Agents, I guess even sadder now we are in the Covid19 world.   It was a pain to get to, Chris had to negotiate the one-way...

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Today shady European Deals and shady terraces, as we continue our daily diary of Lockdown, Spanish style.

Find out more: https://www.thesecretspain.com

Day 74 shady deals

 

Thursday has arrived and we are awaiting the blind men, not that they are actually blind, but they are hopefully going to fit the awning blinds that run along the top of our pergola.

 

Some rather sad but predictable news from the Spanish economy, and that is 38,508 fewer pensions were paid out last month as the Covid19 virus has been especially lethal amongst Spain’s ageing population. This is also the third month in a row the pension bill has declined.

 

The E.U. has finally moved into action and there is a plan to help the Spanish economy to the tune of 140 Billion Euros.  But that plan does depend on all 27 member states agreeing a rescue package principally for Spain, Italy and then smaller amounts for the rest of the Union.

 

European Commission President Ursula Von Der Leyen says “We either all go it alone, leaving countries, regions and people behind, and accepting a Union of haves and have-nots, or we walk that road together”.

 

The European Union has finally reached its crossroads, is it prepared to bail out countries like Spain?  Will there be strings attached, like reform of Labour law and the ease to run a small business here in Spain? Or will they just throw Euros at Spain in the hope that some might do some good?

 

It is Thursday and finally we are going to get some shade out on the terrace.  If when the restrictions lift and you decide to come and look for property here in beautiful Spain, forget about the sun, that is a given.

 

I know in the UK we constantly hunted out the sun.  We used to sit at the bottom of our garden, because it was the only place the evening sun reached.  We would play a game of musical chairs to catch the last warm rays before the cold of the evening arrived.

 

It was rare that evenings, even in summer were warm enough to sit out in the garden without a patio heater somewhere nearby.  I remember once a particularly miserable barbecue with our friends where the heavens opened, but we carried on under a large plastic parasol come tent, hardly alfresco eating.

 

So it comes as no surprise when you see those homes abroad in the sun shows that the first thing the Brits look for is a bit of sun, ooing and arring at a roof terrace, which the Spanish would only use to dry their clothes on or let their dog up to for a crap.

 

“Oh Audrey, I can just see us and the thirty-nine grandchildren up her having a lovely Sunday roast.”  Well you would certainly be roasting all right.

 

Or “Frank, what about this wonderful pool, I can see myself sipping a cocktail beside it.” Again, an hour or so sunbathing fine, but sitting out in the sun all day, Brit style is an uncomfortable and potentially dangerous regular pastime.

 

I quote from the Daily Mail: “Cilla Black may have had a stroke after being overcome by heat during the hottest summer in Spain for 40 years. The 72-year-old collapsed suddenly on Saturday on a sun terrace at her luxury holiday villa in Estepona, near Marbella”

 

So, if you are looking around property, look for the shady areas of the house or flat, places where you can sit out of the sun and have an evening meal.  Mostly that means more than just an area with a parasol stuck somewhere nearby.

 

The Spanish love a bit of cane, they wire canes together to form a cover and then lay it across a pergola to create some shade.  I am not personally that keen on cane, it is a bit too rustic for me, but I have to say our neighbour José has painted his cane white, and with the white of the building it looks ok.

 

The blind men have gone for a late lunch, I am not sure if they will work till 8pm, they sometimes will do that.  A summer working day can start at 8am, breakfast at 10am, lunch usually at 2pm back at about 3 to 3.30pm working through to the evening sun sets.

 

If you are outside working, this makes perfect sense.  Indoors with air-conditioning, I think most Spanish would prefer to do a 9 to 5pm working day, with evenings free to see the kids and have a slightly earlier social life.

 

It does not help that really Spain should be at the same time as the UK, indeed it was before Franco decided to move Spanish time to Berlin time. I think it is one of the reasons why the Spanish stay out so late at night.  For years they have been talking about changing it back, but don’t hold your breath.

 

Now is the time to think about making your move to Spain, start by looking at the Estate Agent sites like Kyero, but remember when we saw the house of our dreams on the internet, it looked like a house of horrors and we immediately discounted it.

 

So, combine a holiday and an Estate Agent trip here, as soon as you can after travel is lifted.